Art's Claim to Truth

First collected in Italy in 1985, Art's Claim to Truth is considered by many philosophers to be one of Gianni Vattimo's most important works. Newly revised for English readers, the book begins with a challenge to Plato, Aristotle, Kant, and Hegel, who viewed art as a metaphysical aspect of reality rather than a futuristic anticipation of it. Following Martin Heidegger's interpretation of the history of philosophy, Vattimo outlines the existential ontological conditions of aesthetics, paying particular attention to the works of Kandinsky, which reaffirm the ontological implications of art.

Vattimo then builds on Hans-Georg Gadamer's theory of aesthetics and provides an alternative to a rationalistic-positivistic criticism of art. This is the heart of Vattimo's argument, and with it he demonstrates how hermeneutical philosophy reaffirms art's ontological status and makes clear the importance of hermeneutics for aesthetic studies. In the book's final section, Vattimo articulates the consequences of reclaiming the ontological status of aesthetics without its metaphysical implications, holding Aristotle's concept of beauty responsible for the dissolution of metaphysics itself. In its direct engagement with the works of Gadamer, Heidegger, and Luigi Pareyson, Art's Claim to Truth offers a better understanding of the work of Vattimo and a deeper knowledge of ontology, hermeneutics, and the philosophical examination of truth.

Whether he is reflecting on the relation between truth and aesthetic experience, unpacking the tensions between critical interpretations and the original potential of the work of art, or exploring the implications of the thesis that the viewer is part of the work, Gianni Vattimo keeps his eye on the target: a concept of the work as the origin of the possible, the first exemplar of a law that itself brings into being without exhausting it. Anyone interested in the philosophy of art will learn much from these erudite essays.

Steven Crowell, Rice University, and author of Husserl, Heidegger, and the Space of Meaning

This long-overdue translation not only contributes to our appreciation of the significance of Gianni Vattimo's philosophy but is also an important event in the history of so-called continental aesthetics. Santiago Zabala's masterful introduction enhances the reader's understanding both of the context of Vattimo's early writing on art and of its continuing significance today.

Robert Bernasconi, University of Memphis, and author of How to Read Sartre

Art's Claim to Truth offers much to work with with in the field of contemporary aesthetics.

Daniel Guentchev, Kinesis

AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: The Hermeneutic Consequence of Art's Ontological Bearing, by Santiago ZabalaPart I. Aesthetics 1. Beauty and Being in Ancient Aesthetics2. Toward an Ontological Aesthetics3. The Ontological Vocation of Twentieth-Century Poetics4. Art, Feeling, and Originality in Heidegger's AestheticsPart II. Hermeneutics 5. Pareyson: From Aesthetics to Ontology6. From Phenomenological Aesthetics to Ontology of Art7. Critical Methods and Hermeneutic PhilosophyPart III. Truth 8. Aesthetics and Hermeneutics9. Aesthetics and Hermeneutics in Hans-Georg Gadamer10. The Work of Art as the Setting to Work of Truth11. The Truth That HurtsNotesIndex

About the Author

Gianni Vattimo is emeritus professor of philosophy at the University of Turin and a member of the European Parliament. His books with Columbia University Press are Christianity, Truth, and Weakening Faith: A Dialogue (with René Girard), Not Being God: A Collaborative Autobiography, Art's Claim to Truth, After the Death of God, Dialogue with Nietzsche, The Future of Religion (with Richard Rorty), Nihilism and Emancipation: Ethics, Politics, and the Law, and After Christianity.Santiago Zabala is ICREA Research Professor at the University of Barcelona. He is the author of The Remains of Being: Hermeneutic Ontology After Metaphysics and The Hermeneutic Nature of Analytic Philosophy: A Study of Ernst Tugendhat; editor of Weakening Philosophy, Nihilism and Emancipation, and The Future of Religion; and coeditor (with Jeff Malpas) of Consequences of Hermeneutics.Luca D'Isanto is a translator, editor, and writer of numerous publications on the religious and political turn in postmodern thought.